Why Christ is on the Cross 

This Monday (9/14) is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The cross is the symbol of Christianity because it is by Our Lord’s cross and resurrection that we have been saved and liberated from the power of sin and death. Recently, I was asked by a gentleman who attends an Evangelical congregation why Catholics depict the cross with Jesus still on it. Don’t Catholics realize, he wondered, that Jesus is risen from the dead? Obviously, we do. But depicting Christ on the cross is an ancient tradition for Catholics, as well as for Orthodox Christians. A cross without Christ promises nothing. A cross with Christ identifies it as His – and it is only His cross that saves us. The practice of displaying bare crosses instead of crucifixes only goes back to the 16^th century, when followers of John Calvin preferred it for its simplicity, which was their preference when it came to liturgy and architecture. Other denominations subsequently adopted it, and over the years there emerged a theological emphasis on the idea that Jesus is no longer on the cross and so He shouldn’t be depicted as though He were. 

But in subsequent reflections on my conversation with that gentleman, it seems to me that there is something in his approach to the Passion of Christ, and His suffering on the cross, that would leave it trapped in a historical moment 2000 years ago. When I think of Jesus on the cross, I imagine that He saw me as He suffered, as well as every other sinner throughout history – from Adam to those on earth at the end of days. Somehow, all of time and space converges on the crucified and risen One, in a way that makes it possible for the events of Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection to burst forth from the bonds of space and time to offer redemption to everything at every moment. This, I think, is important. It enables us to say that Jesus knew everything about you and me, even though we live 2000 years after the event. It enables us to say that Our Lord took up His cross for you and me, even though we live 2000 years after the event. It enables us to say that there is nothing we could ever do all these centuries later that would cause Him to change His mind or regret His sacrifice for us, because on the cross He knew exactly what He was doing and for whom He was doing it.  

And so the crucifix, more so than the empty cross, calls out to us for a response. The writer Mary Beth Kremski reminds us that, “Jesus made suffering a servant in the cause of redemption. If received with faith, suffering can unite us to Him in a way few things can. Only Jesus crucified can make sense of and give purpose to human suffering.” She continues: “If the suffering and work of Calvary are, as some Protestants claim, past history, leaving nothing for us to do, then maybe using only a plain cross might make sense – maybe. But when we know that Jesus is inviting each of us to join Him at Calvary, the value of the crucifix in helping us respond to Him becomes obvious. This call to suffer with Christ is an invitation to transforming love. Through the experience of the cross, we touch the inner heart of God. The saints tell us that’s where joy and power reside.”